Citi and Bank of America Restricted AI Agents’ Access to Customer Accounts

Published: October 18, 2026 – 13:15 UTC

US banks do not trust AI to transfer money.
In particular, Citi and JPMorgan are restricting AI agents’ access to accounts.
In addition, AI could cost banks $47 billion a year.

US banks Citigroup and Bank of America have restricted AI agents’ access to customer accounts amid concerns that autonomous assistants could move depositors’ funds en masse into higher-yield financial products, FT reports.

In October 2026, banking industry representatives also approached US Federal Reserve (Fed) regulators over the growing use of AI for financial transactions. Banks fear losing a significant share of low-cost deposits they use for lending.

Why Banks Are Blocking AI Agents

Citigroup said it does not allow third-party AI agents or assistants to log into customer accounts or independently carry out transactions in its digital banking services. According to bank representatives, this is necessary to protect accounts and users’ personal data. At the same time, customers can grant certain open banking services limited, read-only access to account information.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan also confirmed the need to control AI-driven financial actions. He said the bank is working with developers of agentic systems on rules that will define liability for payments initiated by artificial intelligence.

“We strongly believe there should be a human in the loop to authorise money moving out of your account,” Moynihan said.

He added that banks want to avoid situations where customers discover money missing without understanding where it was transferred and why it happened.

The debate intensified after Meta launched its personal AI assistant Muse in September. Meanwhile, tech companies are developing personal finance tools that can automatically move money between accounts, optimizing yield.

Banks Risk Losing Billions of Dollars

According to an estimate by Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok, AI agents could automatically move household savings into accounts paying 3.3–5% instead of the average yield on US checking accounts of 0.1%.

He said that if such tools start seeing widespread use, banks could lose a significant share of the low-cost deposits they need for lending. In particular, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo together hold $1.6 trillion in non-interest-bearing deposits — about 16% of their liabilities. If those funds had to be serviced at a 3% rate, banks’ costs would rise by roughly $47 billion per year — nearly half of their combined annual profit.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also said the bank will restrict third-party AI agents’ access to customer accounts, since there could be thousands of uncontrolled agents.

“We have to make sure we protect our customers in the right way. So, we’re building tools to do that, too. In the meantime, we’re not going to allow just any outside agent to come inside the company because that’s just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan,” Dimon said during a discussion of the bank’s quarterly results.

Federal Reserve officials, according to a source familiar with the discussions, privately supported limiting AI agents’ access to customer accounts. Regulators believe it is necessary to clarify the legal rules for authorizing transactions by autonomous systems, as well as liability in the event of errors.

Christoph Stegmaier, a senior partner at consulting firm Simon-Kucher, noted that banks will have to more actively encourage customers to keep their savings with them, including through loyalty programs and more attractive lending terms.

“You have to make your deposit products stickier,” he concluded.

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